Blender glTF 2.0 Importer and Exporter

Documentation

Notes:

• 4.2 is the current stable release. Check the blender-v4.2-release branch (and 4.2.x tag)
• 4.3 is the next stable release. Check the blender-v4.3-release branch
• 2.80 - 4.1 are previous stable releases.
• 4.2.x is the current Blender LTS release. Check the blender-v4.2-release branch (and 4.2.x tag)
• main branch of this addon is mirrored in Blender main, that will become Blender 4.4.

Legacy 2.79 Support

The final version of this addon with legacy support for Blender 2.79 is available on the 2.79 Release Page.

Blender 2.80 and higher bundle this addon in the main Blender install package, so no 3rd-party install is required.

Credits

Developed by UX3D, Scurest and Julien Duroure, with support from the Khronos Group, Mozilla, and Airbus Defense & Space.

Introduction

Official Khronos Group Blender glTF 2.0 importer and exporter.

This project contains all features from the previous exporter, and all future development will happen on this repository. In addition, this repository contains a Blender importer, with common Python code shared between exporter and importer for round-trip workflows. New features are included or under development, but usage and menu functionality remain the same.

The shared codebase is organized into common (Blender-independent) and Blender-specific packages:

Package organisation

This structure allows common code to be reused by third-party Python packages working with the glTF 2.0 format.

Import & export process

The main importer and exporter interface is the Python glTF scene representation. Blender scene data is first extracted and converted into this scene description. This glTF scene description is exported to the final JSON glTF file. Any compression of mesh, animation, or texture data happens here. For import, glTF data is parsed and written into the Python glTF scene description. Any decompression is executed in this step. Using the imported glTF scene tree, the Blender internal scene representation is generated from this information.

Installation

The Khronos glTF 2.0 importer and exporter is enabled by default in Blender 2.8 and higher. To reinstall it — for example, when testing recent or upcoming changes — copy the addons/io_scene_gltf2 folder into the scripts/addons_core/ directory of the Blender installation, then enable it under the Add-ons tab. For additional development documentation, see Debugging.

Debugging

• Debug with PyCharm NOTE: If you are using Blender 2.80+, you need the updated debugger script
• Debug with VSCode

Continuous Integration Tests

Several companies, individuals, and glTF community members contribute to Blender glTF I/O. Functionality is added and bugs are fixed regularly. Because hobbyists and professionals using Blender glTF I/O rely on its stability for their daily work, continuous integration tests are enabled. After each commit or pull request, the following tests are run:

• Export Blender scene and validate using the glTF validator
• Round trip import-export and comparison of glTF validator results

These quality-assurance checks improve the reliability of Blender glTF I/O.

Running the Tests Locally

To run the tests locally, your system should have a blender executable in the path that launches the desired version of Blender.

The latest version of Yarn should also be installed.

Then, in the tests folder of this repository, run yarn install, followed by yarn run test.

Main branch

The main branch was renamed on 2023 January, 12th. If you need to update your local repository, you can use the following documentation

Some Technical documentation

Want to fix some bugs or add some enhancement? You will find some technical overview of this addon here